Can This Man Reinvent Concrete?

Author name:
Alex Wilson
Blog Category:
Energy Solutions
GreenSpec Insights
A California company, Blue Planet, is reinventing concrete and envisions a world in which the 8 billion tons of concrete used each year sequester billions of tons of carbon dioxide.
Pouring the foundation for our Dummerston Home; someday soon, concrete may be able to sequester huge quantities of carbon. Photo Credit: Alex Wilson
I’ve been in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past week speaking at various conferences. (When I travel I try to combine activities to assuage my guilt at burning all the fuel and emitting all that carbon dioxide to get there. Between conferences, I’m now spending time with my daughter in Petaluma and Napa.)
I spent three days last week at BuildWell , a small conference organized by my friend and colleague Bruce King, P.E. that is focused on “innovative materials for a greener planet.” The roster of presenters included such well-known thought leaders as Ed Mazria, FAIA of Architecture 2030 , who is leading an effort to shift to zero-carbon buildings by 2030; John Warner, Ph.D., the father of Green Chemistry , which is transforming manufacturing by reducing toxicity; and Mathis Wackernagel, the founder of the Global Footprint Network .
A less-recognized presenter (and attendee throughout the three days) was Brent Constantz, Ph.D ., the founder and CEO of Blue Planet and a professor at Stanford University. (Blue Planet has no website currently.) Little did I know how audacious Constantz’s plans are: to reinvent concrete, transforming it from one of the world’s largest emitters of carbon dioxide into one of the most important tools to sequester the carbon dioxide emitted from power plants.
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